RCS Text Messages: What It Is and Is It Really Better?
A breakdown of what RCS is, and what it means for you–the user
Until recently, unless you were a tech nerd, you probably hadn’t heard of RCS messaging before. The reason you haven’t? Your service carrier didn’t want you to.
The RCS protocol has been in development for years, being pushed by Google. The end goal of this project was to create a newer, more robust messaging protocol–one that could rival what they offered on iOS with iMessage — and one that didn’t involve your phone carrier charging you extra so they could play middle man with your text messages.
RCS, short for RICH COMMUNICATION SERVICES, is a game changer if you’re an Android user. To explain it simply, RCS is SMS/MMS 2.0, think iMessage Lite but for Android. RCS brings many features that Android users have not so secretly coveted about iMessage to the Android platform.
Features such as
- Read Receipts
- Writing Indicators
- Group Messages
- Reactions
- Sending/Receiving Larger Files
- Encryption
